Tanya Lisle

Tag: horror

  • Dreadful Company Review

    After how much fun I had with Strange Practice, it seemed only natural that I’d checkout the sequel! Because apparently there’s more than one!

    This book starts with Greta and Ruthvan in France attending a conference about supernatural medical practices.1 In pretty short order things go wrong in that Greta gets kidnapped and it takes a while to notice she’s missing thanks to people being conveniently called away and not thinking much about the woman at a conference not paying attention to her phone for a bit. Gradually, you learn that she’s been taken by a coven of vampires, the head of which has a grudge against Ruthvan, and that this is a pretty terrible coven in most respects. Partially because one is turning people without consent, and partially because another is summoning so many cute things that she’s causing the fabric of reality to grow thin. 

    I mean, worth it though. 

    This book was as much fun as the last one, I’m happy to say. It doesn’t suffer from second book syndrome in that it’s still a contained adventure that references previous events and builds on the characters. There are a few perspectives I didn’t care for initially, but it was good to have them in the narrative to help flesh out the universe and give the last few keys to the puzzle of what was going on. The story has so many disparate parts that you really don’t know until the end how they all fit together, but they do fit together pretty marvelously. 

    I also really like how the diversity is done in this universe. They exist and that’s it. It feels like the universe is diverse as opposed to a story where they are trying to hit a quota. They are there, you notice them, their actions are informed by their experiences, and then we focus on the vampires destroying reality that we need to call in the forces of hell to deal with. 

    It does, however, still have that other issue where it doesn’t sound like it’s taking place in the modern day. Every reference to cell phones and smartphones feels out of place because they all talk like they are from a very different era. It feels jarring, but I wonder if some of that is because it takes place in Europe. 

    Overall, I really enjoyed it! The series is a lot of fun so far and I’ll probably check out the third when it comes out. 

    Get it on Amazon!

    1. Which is actually a pretty fascinating world detail! [↩]

  • Sawkill Girls Review

    I thought I’d take a break from what I usually read and went with something that felt much different. I knew vaguely that there was an ace character in here, but other than that I was intrigued by the idea of a series of murders happening on an island and it being up to a few girls to find out what happened to their friends, This was not quite what I was expecting, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless.

    The story mostly follows Marion, a young woman who is new to the island. Her, her sister Charlotte, and her mother are relocating to the island for her mother’s work and to try and move on from their father’s death. She doesn’t put much weight on the disappearances of the young girls on the island until her sister goes missing after falling in with the beautiful and popular Val. The outcast, Zoey, who is still mourning the disappearance of her friend from months before, joins her and a whole lot of paranormal stuff starts happening.

    So, as it turns out, this story is about a demon feeding on the girls of the island in an attempt to become strong enough to break free of his human hosts—Val’s family—and the island to go and murder whoever he wants. And Sawkill rock,1 finding young girls to give the abilities necessary to fight and eliminate the demon.

    The movement from creepy mystery to girls with powers fighting a demon is done pretty well and not as jarring as it could have been. The atmosphere is consistently dark throughout and there’s new elements to the world constantly being brought in and introduced, from the demon to the powers to the cult of monster hunters made up entirely of men, and any with lines are incredibly sexist. Who you knew were going to be evil and useless because this book goes a little heavy on the feminism themes.

    There was only one bit that really bothered me, and that was less the scene itself than its purpose in the narrative. Coming into the climax2 two of the characters hook up and the sole purpose of it appears to be so that they can make characters more angry at one another. The results of that conflict are resolved so easily during the main conflict in favour of focusing on longer and more established ones that it felt a little pointless and like it would have been better done earlier if they wanted the conflict to have a bit more punch.

    As for the representation, the queer ladies are done fairly well. I thought the relationship between he girls moved a little fast, but this book is structured very much like a horror movie, so that’s to be expected. Teenagers and their teenage hormones and the murders happening everywhere making them run amok. The asexuality is mostly displayed as an indifference-to-aversion to sex which is… fine? It’s not my experience, but it’s probably good for those who do experience it. The conversations around it sound about right, so it works.

    Overall, I really enjoyed the book! It’s spooky, it has some interesting concepts, and the characters are a lot of fun to follow as they try to figure out themselves and what to do with the demon.

    Get Sawkill Girls on Amazon!

    1. An actual, sentient rock. It makes more sense and is less silly in context. [↩]
    2. It’s a sex scene, there are so many puns, I’m about 20% sorry [↩]

  • The Strange and Deadly Portraits of Bryony Gray Review

    I’ve mentioned this book to some people, but let me talk about how much I enjoyed it. I’m not just saying that because I happen to know Latimer and I’m very happy to have her book finally in my hands.

    The story follows Bryony Gray, a young girl taken in by a family that doesn’t much like her but does appreciate what she can do for them. She’s been made to paint portraits by an abusive aunt and uncle who have taken her in and secluded in the attic where she can only look out at the next house and imagine she could be friends with the children who live there.

    Well, until the portraits she has been painting are linked to a series of disappearances. Then she finds that not only have some of the things she’s been seeing are a real danger, but she gets to break out and actually meet the neighbours who help her deal with her paintings and find out more about who her parents really were.

    Middle grade horror does not get enough love as a genre and Latimer does it wonderfully. There’s a good focus on the adventure with the horror elements being more of an addition. It’s also not that sort of horror that you find in the books for older folks. Not descriptions of blood splatter or gruesome murders but the more unsettling things that are different from the way they should be told through the lens of a character where these things are not entirely unusual.

    Plus it’s got some nice queer representation! There’s nothing official, mind you. It’s middle grade, after all. And traditionally published. A fully realized couple was not going to happen, but there’s enough in there that I read it as very obvious, even if others are reading it as subtle.

    I’d very much recommend it. It’s a lot of fun and, as middle grade, a pretty easy read. There’s a lot of interesting ideas in it, and it’s told fantastically.

    Also I want a sequel.1

    Get The Strange and Deadly Portraits of Bryony Gray here!

    1. It doesn’t need a sequel, but I want one anyway [↩]